BLACK STARS AND BLACK POVERTY: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS UPON BLACK THEOLOGY FROM A GARVEYITE PERSPECTIVE

Black theology by nature is concerned with the full liberation of oppressed individuals. Full liberation is a holistic effort which must include freedom from economic oppression and poverty. This article seeks to challenge Black theology and Black theologians in two specific ways regarding this particular aspect of liberation: liberation from poverty and economic oppression. The first challenge is to improve in its critical engagement of the systemic causes and sustainers of poverty in a way that is more accessible, applicable, and diverse in the origins of the critique. The second challenge is to consider an expansion of the scope of Black theology from critical academic field to critical mass movement-a transition that would expand the reach of Black theology from the academy to the pulpit (or rather to more pulpits) and from the pulpit to the streets.